Psychology of Language (summary book Introduction to Psycholinguistics included)
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Course
Psychology of Language
Institution
Tilburg University (UVT)
Book
Introduction to Psycholinguistics
This document contains all information necessary for the final exam. The chapters are presented in the order of the given lectures (lecture notes included).
Psychology of Language
Chapter 1
Two chief components of language: Language needs both
1. Grammer (syntax)= Having the capacity to combine sets of calls in longer
messages. Misconceptions about grammer: “The rules aren’t the ones we were
taught in school.” Grammar= A set of rules to combine units.
Prescriptive grammar= Completely arbitrary rules that you can follow if
you wish to sound like a proper English gentleman. What teachers tell you.
(Ex. Never end a sentence with a preposition/Avoid the use of passive
sentences). Collections of artificial rules. The language of the vast majority.
Human mind. Grammar…
1. Determines the order of symbols (op welke plaats in de zin);
2. Agreement in which specific form the word must be in a sentence
(girls like but not girls likes);
3. Case marking depending on what role they play in a sentence
(grammatical functions, he left not him left) The changing in form of
nouns depending on his place.
Descriptive grammar= Systematic rules that determine how people
actually speak. The rules that people have in their minds and use in
ordinary languages. What people do without rules. How they actually
speak. Leave people alone (ex. “Each clause can have only one main
verb.” • *My grammar teachers liked gave rules. “Verbs go in the middle.”
• *Liked grammar teachers rules).More interesting. The rules that make
people use language.
“A theory of grammar is a theory about the mental representation of language.”
Sometimes your gen decides whether you can do grammer or not. Where does
prescriptive grammer come from? 1. Gen and 2. Full-blown (geheel ontwikkeld)
languages developed out a pidgins (taalfamilie).
2. Lexicon= Part of long-term memory that stores information about words.
Ideas about modern human languages emerged from ancestors who had no
language and the relationship with non-humans:
- Continuity hypothesis: The modern languages is the newest update of the
abilities from different precursor. Reflecting possibilities from before. It
comes from a basic communication systems (ex. Research in apes
because they are intelligent they understand complex abilities, e.g.
semanticy. They (Diana) link eagle warming call to the fact that there is an
eagle around. And Kanzi produced vocalizations for different fruits. Apes
are more successful in gestures, because they cannot make the sounds of
a human. But they can do a sort of grammar. They play some word in a
particular sequences.
- Discontinuity hypothesis: It is different from basic communication systems.
There is a gab between others and our ancestors.
But all scientists agree on Adaptation= Evolution. Our vocal tracts differ from
other apes. Some species had more of de characteristics than others did in the
past. That ones were more likely to survive and reproduce.
Two theories where speech comes from:
,1. Speech predates homo sapiens: producing speech requires the right kind of
vocal tract and equal distance from the larynx to the top of the throat and from
the top of the throat to the mouth opening.
2. Speech does not predate homo sapiens: producing speech requires the ability
to control the speech apparatus and rapid changes in air flow. Human ancestors
and apes lack the neural systems that are necessary for fine breathing control.
Three main factors why apes and humans have the communitive abilities:
Determine skill in producing and understanding language.
- Phylogeny: Biological characteristics.
- Ontogeny: Maturational characteristics of the individual.
- Culture or environment.
Lecture 1
PSYCHOLOGY OF LANGUAGE/PSYCHOLINGUISTICS= The study of how individuals
comprehend, produce, and acquire language. Part of language production.
• knowledge of language and the cognitive processes involved in ordinary
language use
• social rules in language use and the brain mechanisms associated with
language. Rules of languages (part of social linguistics).
• began in the 1950s with important precursors earlier in the 20th century
Ordinary language use= is what you use in your everyday life.
What is language and where does is come from?
Different aspects of language. Language can we describe in different ways.
Language – a system of symbols and rules that enable us to communicate.
- Semantics= Meaning of words (the study of meaning).
- Syntax= What a valid word order in a language (the study of word order).
- Morphology= How you make words in a language (how do you make words of
combine different nouns) (the study of words and word formation).
- Pragmatics= How language is used (the study of language use).
- Phonetics= Physical aspect of language. Soundwaves/fluctuations in air
pressure that are part of language (the study of raw sounds).
- Phonology= The way it sounds and I have in my head. Represent in the head
(the study of how sounds are used within a language).
Components of languages:
o Phonemes= Discriminate different meaning. Representations of sounds
(hoe je het uitspreekt). The sound/correspondence of letters. Letters
compose written words and phonemes are the spoken words.
o Syllables= When we use internations and stress patterns. When we
split the words.
o Morphemes= The smallest meaning carrying units. Meaningful units in
words that always refer to the same thing (dog, dog-s)
o Words= Just words to make phrases.
o Phrases/Clauses= Just phrases to make sentences.
o Sencentes= Just sentences en de samenstelling ervan.
You see they are lying under continuum. Stored lexicon is somewhere in your
head and it goes to generated. Generated you cannot store them all. You cannot
, store all sentences. It is a combination between stored knowledge and rules how
to combine these knowledge. Then you know the language. The rules does not
only apply.
Central design features of language:
- Semanticity= Idea that Sounds and symbols are linked to specific meaning.
Meaning (word).
- Displacement= Talk about things that are not in the here and now. Tense
markers in the past. (verleden tijd).
- Arbitrariness= No inherent connection between the sound and the thing that
is refers to. The sound three had no connection to the shape of it. No
necessary relationship between object or events and symbols. The word does
not come from the object. In every language it can be different. One result of
arbitrariness is that names for objects can completely different across
languages (koshka, gato, chat, neko, and mao are all words for cat). The
name could be changed as long as everyone agreed, and the name would not
affect the ability to express the concept in language.
- Discreteness= The fact that language is reproducible and combinable.
Phonemes. Components of language are organized in a set of distinct
categories with boundries.
- Displacement: Convey information about the event that is happening (spatial
displacement is about what happened before) (temporal displacement is
about what have not took place yet) Will, was, were, but also affixes ‘pre-‘
of ‘-ed’.
- Duality of patterning (double articulation)= The get meaning when it is
combined. The P is a letter, but when it is Park, it means something. A pattern
of phonemes. Different words following each other. You say Wosp, but type
Wasp. The meaning is less important.
- Generativity= We can combine words in many different orders to say
whatever we want. Different message that can be created with all the
numbers and symbols combining in different patterns.
- Recursion= Component into another component at the same time. One
phrase into another (aan elkaar koppelen). Discrete infinity can be done
because of recursion= The possibility to combine sentences. (Hand me the
nails that Dan brought). You add ‘that’. Not every language has recursion.
The unique thing about language is recursion: the ability to place a
component inside another
component of the same type. E.g. a sentence inside another sentence.
X = Tom likes beans
Y = Susan thinks (x).
Z = Susan thinks Tom likes beans.
What effects does recursion have?
It allows the expression of very complex concepts.
It removes any upper limit on the length of a sentence.
Dave knows Margaret feels Bobs believes.. Susan thinks Tom likes
beans.
Three ideas about recursion
1. It’s a core property of all languages, unique to language
2. It’s a core property of all languages, shared with other systems
3. None of the above
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